


Apricity - A Novella

by Crystalliced



Category: Original Work
Genre: Corruption, F/M, Fighting, Friendship, Isolation, Magic, Philosophy, Sacrifice, Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-05-01 19:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5217923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystalliced/pseuds/Crystalliced
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The word 'apricity' represents a simple and familiar yet a very specific phenomenon- the sun’s warmth on a cold winter’s day.</p><p>To Tyler, a seventeen year old male fighting in a magical world for a Wish, it represents something entirely different...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Battle Trance, Part 1.

**Author's Note:**

> Summaries of the Chapter may be found at the bottom of it.

_“Lilly?”_

_“Run!”_

_“This...this isn’t your fault...”_

_“I’ll...I’ll kill you all!”_

 

Blood splatters against the ground.

I stare at the white-furred wolf in front of me dispassionately, letting the impaled corpse cool before scraping it off of my simple steel sword.

Around me, a dozen such bloodsoaked animals have fallen to the same fate, a gruesome death at my blade.  I walk around a rended corpse, watching where I step.  It wouldn’t do to get blood on my sneakers; it clashes horribly with the black of my shoes.

I’m a little rustier than I remember.  All the time spent preparing for my journey, and all the last minute research I had to do...

The Book. That’s something I’ll definitely be making an effort to find.  The location of one of the Guardians are supposedly given away in the tome, and I have to get to it first.  I’m fortunate enough to be located close to its last known whereabouts, and my study has given me some clues as to its precise location.

If anything, I can at least stop people from getting to it.  Destroying it would work fine -- I have a basic fire spell that could do the trick.  And if someone else has it...

They’ll have to die.  

I continue my sprint down the cobblestones, the sun high over my shoulder.  To the left and right of me, tall evergreen and pine trees block my view.  If I were to stop and climb one, I would be able to see the Castle from here; my ultimate destination, once I’ve retrieved the four keystones.  And then...

Then I’ll get to see Lilly again, and properly apologize for killing her.

 

_“H-Hey?  Are you okay?”_

_“W-Why...?”_

_“W-Wait!  Tyler!”_

 

I’m almost thankful for the bolt of fire that forces me to dive sideways, the heat searing my skin.  Glancing at my forearm, I mentally sigh.  No permanent damage, fortunately, but it’s a close thing, the skin burning red.  I quickly stumble to my feet and face my adversary head-on.

I recognize the plant-based monster from a textbook.  The “Red Stalk” consists of coarse, dirty roots jammed straight into the ground, preventing movement.  Its entire body and neck is a simple crimson stalk, thin, and oh-so-vulnerable.  It has a bulbous head, with the only real feature being a large mouth from which it fires off deadly projectiles.  They’re ambush monsters, popping out of the ground when a victim gets close enough.

I’m not a victim.

I crouch down before rocketing forward, letting a burst of mana travel down my arm, coalescing into a thin energy barrier of ice over my sword.  The plant fires again, but I’ve already prepared for this.  My blade cleaves the fireball in half, dissipating the heat with ease.

Fire versus ice.  My will overrides the will of a mindless monster, and thus I win with ease.

My left reaches over, behind my back, to pull a second sword out, and I watch as the plant’s head glows for a second before launching another blast.  Dodging it with a sideways flip, I charge directly at the monster.

Six seconds.  There’s six seconds between each shot.  Therefore...

 

 

_“I’m surprised your magic affinity is fire, Lilly.  I thought’d you be something else.”_

_“Fire affinities favor the passionate and determined, so I’m not surprised.”_

_“Yeah, well, I was thinking you’d be Earth.  Stubborn as a rock.”_

_“Hey!”_

The flashblack disorients me and I stumble, jamming a sword into the ground to steady myself.

No time; the Red Stalk glows again.  I’m in no position to move sideways.

Fine, then.  I’ll...

I start my jump as it fires, knowing I can’t possibly jump over the fireball.  Instead, I aim for the hilt of my sword, catching it with two feet and using it as a springboard to jump even higher, clearing the projectile as it destroys the hilt of my dropped weapon, rendering it unusable.  

It’s not of any consequence, though.  With my forward leap, I’m in range.  Taking steady aim, I throw my remaining blade at the Red Stalk, decapitating it as it charges another shot.  

Almost comically, the head slides off slowly before it crumbles away, the vines falling over motionlessly.  I walk over to retrieve my thrown sword.

That’s the first time I’ve ever had a flashback in battle.  It can’t happen again.

“Lilly, cut it out.”  I mutter harshly to myself, yanking the blade out of the dirt.  

I imagine a small blonde girl smiling impishly before waving and fading away.

 

_“Thank you...for everything.”_

 

Arcacia is a small and simple village, and contains nothing of interest.  I’m drawn to the market stalls, seeking a replacement for my destroyed weapon.

The wooden boards are fairly dusty.  I gather that it doesn’t draw many visitors; not surprising, considering the rather poor workmanship behind the blades.  It doesn’t matter much, though; a weak blade is better than none, and I eye what appears to be the best one.

The problem is that I don’t exactly have money to pay for this.  I spent my time training, not working.  I don’t have any kind of funding.  

Well, then.  For the greater good, I step out back and drag a mana-infused finger across the boards, setting the building on fire before disappearing back around the corner as the owner comes running.  While he’s occupied, I swipe the blade and sheath off of its hook before running away and out of the village, back on the path.

If it’s a small consolation, the fire I set was very, very small.  Those damages should be minimal, and it’s not like the man I stole from was going to use the weapon, anyways.  There’s no point in hoarding.  Tools are designed to be used.

 

_“Your problem, Tyler, is that you’re kind of mean.”_

_“Actually, Lilly, you’re too nice.”_

I smile grimly at the memory.

Being nice, compassionate, friendly...those are all useless traits.  Lilly was all three, and she died for it; because she put my survival over her own.  I tried that, too, futilely.  

The world is cruel.  Why should I be any different...?

 

//

 

It’s hours of running before anything of interest happens.  My footsteps immediately slow to a crawl as I watch a girl fight off four Red Stalks.  She’s using a small magical wand to deftly counter the fireballs being sent at her while sending off her own barrages.  

Wands are interesting weapons, indeed.  Everyone has the potential to use magic at the cost of mana -- energy, specifically physical energy.  It has to be practiced, though, and some people are better at it than others.  Fire, lightning, ice, earth, wind.  The easiest way to describe magic is a physical manifestation of the user’s will.  Wands are conductors, amplifying the intensity of magical attacks and making it easier to use.  

In a few seconds, the entire group has been defeated and she turns around, eyeing me.

I return the favor, my eyes tracking the way she slightly favors her right leg, her heavy pants indicating exhaustion, and the slight tremble of her wand arm.  Noting her apparent weakness, I pan out, looking at the girl herself.  The light green summer dress she’s wearing contrasts her bright red, shoulder-length curly hair . Teal-blue eyes bore into my own, as if probing my soul.  She rubs at a singe mark that mars her otherwise perfect fair skin, apparently done with her observation.

“You look pretty strong, and I don’t really want to fight.  Could you, like, tap into your sense of chivalry or something and not try to kill me?”  The stranger asks, looking hopeful.  Her voice is clear and does not betray how exhausted she is.

“Chivalry?”  I ask, disbelieving.  “That’s a medieval concept.”

“Oooh.  Someone else actually reads?  Why, congratulations!  I didn’t think you had it in you.”  I blink in shock as her voice turns scathing, though she continues to appear cheerful.  

“And that’s why chivalry is a medieval concept.”  I retort blandly, drawing out the ‘and’.  She shrugs, accepting the insult.

“Got me there.”  She says, sliding her wand into a holster on her arm and holding her hands up, the universal symbol for “Please don’t hurt me.”  Shrugging, I sheath my swords, as well.  It’s only polite.  

I’m not quite sure what to make of this girl.  I half expect her to pull out her weapon again and shoot me.

“What’s your name?”  I ask.  

“Names have power.”  She observes, tiredly.  “But...Anna.  You?”

“Tyler.”  I say shortly, continuing to watch her, waiting for her to spring.  She yawns.

“Cool.”  She kicks a loose stone.  

“You’re passionate, defiant, and temperamental.  Why pretend you’re cold?”  I guess, trying to disorient her and force her to drop the aloof personality.  People with fire affinities usually do.  She tilts her head in thought.

“You actually believe that affinity-personality theory?”  Anna questions, looking fairly amused.  

“No reason not to.”

“But that’s faulty logic.”  The redhead argues, frowning.  “If you believe in something just because there’s no proof to the contrary, then...then...I’m not even sure what fallacy to call that!  That’s just wrong!  You might as well believe that you’re immortal because you don’t have any proof you can die!”  

“That’s not -- I didn’t say there wasn’t any proof that it was true.  Though it’s anecdotal proof, and I strongly suspect that you wouldn’t consider it-”  She cuts me off, still ranting.

“Valid?  Nope!  There needs to be, like, I don’t know, a case study.  And who decides what traits are assigned to what affinity?  We haven’t even proven affinities exist and...where do you think you’re going!?”  I’ve started quietly sneaking away.

“Nowhere, apparently.”  I glance anxiously up at the sky.  There isn’t much longer until dark, and then it’ll be a pain to navigate.  

“Oh.  Ohhhh.  I see.  You’re looking for it too, aren’t you?”  Anna murmurs, voice dropping low.  

“I might be.”  I reply evenly, tensing again.  If this girl...

“Hm.  Well, in that case, I hope you don’t mind if I follow you.”  I blink.

“I mind.”  I retort, turning around.  I think I’ve figured out most of her personality by now; enough to ensure that she won’t attack me.  

“I said I hope you don’t mind.  Whether or not you actually mind is not my concern.”  Anna says, and I can feel her smirk as she falls into step behind me, quietly humming a simple melody under her breath.

 

_“Do you want to go back?”_

 

“You’re kind of quiet, huh?”  Anna inquires.  “Why?”

“I don’t see the point of talking when there’s nothing to be said.”

 

_“N-No.”_

 

“When a beautiful girl asks you to talk, that’s, like, your cue to start talking about yourself.  Geez...”

“Beautiful is stretching it.  More like somewhat above average.”

 

_“Well, then...where do you want to go?”_

“Ouch.”  The redhead responds, mockingly.  “I almost felt that one.”

“Hey, look!”  I retort, pointing off into the trees.  “Someone who cares!”  

 

_“I...I don’t know.  I don’t know...”_

“Huh.  You’re more fun than I thought.”

“You’re as fun as I thought.  As in, not at all.”  

 

_“Well, here.  Take my hand.”_

The redhead huffs.  “You don’t actually dislike me as much as you pretend to.”  

“You’re right.  I dislike you significantly more than I pretend to.”  

 

_“O-Okay...”_

 

With a soft sigh, the girl gives up talking, letting us run in silence.  I’m very surprised by her ability to keep up with me so easily -- usually magicians aren’t in very good shape.

The quiet only lasts for a few minutes.

“You use two swords?”  Anna asks, intrigued.  

“Yes.”  

“Why?”  A wolf leaps out at me from the lengthening shadows of the trees, and I casually stop to kick it in the throat before finishing it off with a point-blank Fire Bolt.  

My basic fire attack is weak, but at close range is still enough to kill it.  I’ve trained just enough offensive and defensive magic to have simple counters to more skilled magicians.  Most of the tricks I know are supplementary.  

“It works for me.”  I say, shrugging.

“Interesting.  Normally, people only fight with one sword for control and power.”

“Neither of those are issues for me.  I’m ambidextrous.”  

“I see.”  We keep on running.

“Stop!”  I exclaim, almost missing it.  I check again to be sure.

Nope.  There’s definitely some kind of stone gate, inconspicuously placed between a pair of trees.  

“Wow.”  Anna deadpans.  “Another tree.”

“You don’t see it?”  I ask, frowning.  It’s hard to miss, a particularly dark aura surrounding it.  I don’t like it.  This feels like a trap.  

“No, not at all.  What do you see?”  The magician asks, now genuinely curious.

“There’s a stone gate.  There’s unlit torches just beyond that.  It seems to be some kind of pathway.”  I observe, tentatively stepping closer.

“I don’t see anything.  Everything looks perfectly normal -- oh what the-”  Whatever the redhead says is lost as I step past the threshold and everything turns...silent.

I hadn’t noticed earlier, but there were perfectly ordinary background sounds when I was outside.  Chirping birds, the sound of wind, Anna’s harsh breathing.  I had automatically tuned that out, listening for signs of danger, but...now that I think about it, they’re all gone.

This silence is eerie.  

“Woah.”  Anna says, stumbling and clasping a hand to her forehead.

“Are you alright?”  I ask, concerned.  

“Yeah.  Dizzy spell.”  I patiently wait for her to catch her breath.

Everything feels...frozen.  The trees are unnaturally still.  Even the light seems trapped in place.  I glance downward.

I don’t...have a shadow.

“What I want to know,”  Anna wonders, carefully standing up again, “Is how you could see this in the first place.  And why I couldn’t.”

“I don’t know.”  I reply, thoughtful.  “It could be anything.  I don’t know too much about how things work, or why.  I just know that they do.”

“That’s not particularly smart.”  The magician notes.  

“I know.  Why else do you think I’m trying to find the -- urk.”  I cut myself off, finally realizing what I’m about to say, and what this path is probably leading towards.

“The Book.”  Anna finishes.  “Interesting.”  

The tension spikes up as I glance at her, to find her intense stare locked onto me.

My sword hand tenses, ready to draw.

“I’m not adverse to sharing.”  She says, nonchalant.  

Huh.

“I guess I’m not, either.”  I reply cautiously, slowly lowering my guard.

“No, no.  Draw your weapons.  Haven’t you noticed?  Everything’s off.  This is a trap.  There’s no way it isn’t a trap.”  The redhead instructs, drawing her wand as her eyes dart around, observing.  

“This is powerful magic.  I don’t think any human would be able to do this, but...”  The witch clearly knows more about what’s happening than I do.

“What?  What are you talking about?”  I ask, exasperated.  Her eyes lock onto mine.

“Isn’t it obvious, Tyler?  We’re trapped in a time field.”

 

 


	2. Battle Trance, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's an implicit rape trigger, but it is absolutely in no way explicit.

Time flows around us.

This is an undeniable fact of the universe.

Someone (or something) managed to divert time to form a loop, a loop so short that time has the appearance of stopping.  Anyone in the time field when it went up is locked forever, until the field goes down.  (In this specific area, anyways)

Anyone, or anything, introduced to the field remains in normal time, and anything they interact with will disrupt the redirected flow, bringing time back to natural order.  

“So that’s how this works.”  I say, readjusting to the silence after Anna’s mini-lecture on Time.  She nods.  

“So if there were people in here, then...”  I trail off, uncertainly.  

“Yeah, they’ll be frozen in time, too.”  She says, looking grim.  “Understand the dangers of being in this area, now?  It doesn’t take much mana to calibrate the time field.  If we’re in it when they do that, then we’ll be trapped, too.”

“Why aren’t you running, then?”  I ask.  

“Because I don’t think this is being maintained by a person.”  The magician says.  “People don’t even know the basics to doing that.  You can’t manipulate time with mana.  That’s a ridiculous idea.  You’d have to wrap your mana around a basic truth of the universe and falsify it.  The power to do something like that...if, if someone like that existed, then it’d be better to just go home and wait for death.  There’d be no point in resisting.”

“But you think it’s still possible.”  I reply.  “You think it could be done by a person.”

“Of course.”  Anna says.  “This is the forest that holds The Book, isn’t it?  An artifact of great importance.  Someone throws up this barrier, to trap anyone close and to serve as a warning to the intelligent, turning them away.  That makes perfect tactical sense.  The thing that makes me hesitate, though...”  

“Is the Book seriously that important?  I was told it gave valuable tips and tricks about advanced magic, something I’m not too good at, which is why I’m after it.”

She considers this.  “Well, whoever told you that wasn’t lying.  The Book teaches the secret to time magic.”  

...What.

“How do you know that?”  I ask.  

“I’ve spent my whole life searching for information on the Book.”  Anna murmurs.  “Done so many things I shouldn’t have, sacrificed more than healthy.”  Her gaze darkens.  “I have to get it.”  

“I see.”  That makes more questions than it answers, but I’m not going to probe.  This is clearly her business.

“Let’s go, then.”  She says, sprinting off down the pathway.  I follow, catching up to her and running just behind her.

As we run past, the unlit torches flare to life, an unnatural yellow flame that casts odd shadows.  I frown, but Anna doesn’t stop, so I don’t either.  

I don’t know why I’m following her, why I’m doing anything to help her.  It makes no sense.  We should be enemies.  She wants the Book, I want the Book, we shouldn’t be working together.

But something about what she said makes me hesitate.  Time magic...

The path slopes up, then down.  Anna seems to speed up ever so slightly, and I match her pace.

Is...that something I really want to mess with?

Power.  It’s undeniable that being able to control Time, or even to influence it...that would be a great power indeed.

But corrupting myself even further...that’s a terrible idea.

 

_“Tyler, if you don’t run, they’ll kill both of us!”_

_“No.  I’ll never run while my friends are in danger.”_

 

My lips slip into a merciless smile.

Power is corruption.

But it’s not like there’s anything untainted in the world.  Everything is corrupted, eventually.  It just takes time.

I’m broken out of my thoughts when Anna snaps her wand up and launches a fireball into the nearest tree, before grabbing my hand and yanking me in the opposite direction.

“Anna--”  A branch swings towards my face and I narrowly dodge, stumbling as Anna propels me crashing through the foliage.  “What the--”  

“People.”  She says, making a sudden turn until we’re running parallel to the path, through the forest.  

“This is the opposite direction we were-”  

“Shhhh.”  Anna hisses, dropping to her knees, hidden by the bushes.  At a loss, I join her.

Now that everything’s quiet, I can hear what she did, too.  I was too absorbed in my thoughts to notice it, but the sound of loud footsteps.

We were being pursued...?

The sound of conversation slowly wafts over to us.  It’s hard not to hear it, what with the deadly silence.

“Carlos, go check out that crashing sound.”  A male voice, deep.  He sounds older than the rest.

“Gotcha, boss.”  This voice belongs to a boy, not a man, and someone steadily moves in our general direction.

“If you find someone, kill them and join back with us.”

“Alright!”  

Anna grits her teeth.  The sound is nearly imperceptible.

“And if it’s a girl, well, we’ll understand if you’re late.”

“Sweet!”  The girl next to me goes deathly still.

“Tyler.”  She whispers, her voice barely carrying over to me.  “Help me kill them.  Please.”

I nod.

“Hey, look!  There’s a light in the distance!”  

“Right, head towards it!  Pick up the pace!”  The majority of the footsteps start fading out, the pounding noise dissipating.

But there’s one group still heading closer.  

The boy.  Carlos.

“I know you’re there.  If you come out now, then I won’t hurt you.”  The boy’s voice rings out.  

He’s facing the opposite direction.  A bluff.  

Anna rockets out from her spot next to me, lunging in his direction.  I stand up, intending to  back her up, but she doesn’t need it.

The boy jumps back, startled, as Anna makes a long vertical slash with her wand, the tip glowing with an intense light before erupting into a fiery sword.  All I can see is black hair and a white mask before she saws his head off, rendering it a molten mess.

“There’s ten of them left.”  She says, raw anger in her voice.  “If we can split them up, we won’t have any problems.”

“Look at you.”  I reply, amused, and quite pissed off, myself.  “Didn’t think you had it in you.”

“The only time I justify murder is when leaving that person alive would be significantly more detrimental to the greater good of the world and of the innocent than would be killing them.  For this cause, I will not hesitate to stain my hands with blood.  I would not ask you to take this burden upon yourself, Tyler, but...if you are willing...”  I cut her off.

“You don’t need to ask twice.”  I say, simply.  My judgment of Anna as a sweet, soft-spoken girl is immediately crushed.

Staring into the boiling rage in her eyes, I see the gaze of a killer.

“Let’s do this.”

 

//

 

We stealthily make our way back to the larger group.  

“What was that kid wearing?   A mask?”  I ask.

“Yeah.  White porcelain, I think.  Their entire group was wearing it.  I wonder what it means.”  

“Were there any special markings?”

“No, it was featureless.”  

“A group of some sort, I guess.”  

Anna shrugs.  “It doesn’t matter.  They’re all going to die.”  

An apt way to put it.  

Seven members are standing around, seemingly bored.  Anna immediately blows a fireball-shaped hole in one of their heads.

It successfully gets their attention.

A forward jab of her wand sends a spear of ice into the chest of a second member, piercing his weak lightning-element shield.

By the time they realize that there are two attackers, I’ve already slashed the legs off of one and stabbed another.  Bringing the pierced man to bear, I use him as a shield when a mage tries to attack me with a magical lightning bolt.

Good thing my swords have rubber grips on them.

Bad thing for the man stuck on my conductive metal blade.

The distraction proves fatal for a fifth member.  Unable to decide who to defend against, he turns toward me, which is entirely the wrong decision as Anna sets him on fire.  

Lunging forward, I stab the mage with my occupied blade, skewering both on the same blade before kicking them off towards Anna, the redhead finishing them off with her fiery blade.

I stomp on the hand of the male with severed legs as he reaches for his sword, then his exposed throat, snapping both like fallen twigs.

The last one standing stares at us, a wand and sword in hand, both glowing.  With a cross of their weapons, a wicked-looking crescent of energy is fired off at us.

Anna steps forward and catches the criss-crossed blades in her hand, twisting and unravelling the powerful spell.

“Wow.”  I think, as a brief magical fight breaks out before Anna fires a spike of ice into the side of her enemy’s head.  Unravelling magic spells can only be done with both knowledge of the spell being cast, its counter, and a significant difference in power.

“She’s good.  Real good.”

And, somehow, not a splash of blood on her dress.

I cautiously walk closer to her as she sighs.

“I hate doing that.”  She says, quietly.

I don’t reply, not sure what to say.  

Her words only confirm what I had suspected; this isn’t the first time she’s killed.  Rather...that she’s killed enough times to develop that kind of an opinion on it.  Of weariness.

“It doesn’t matter.”  She whispers, almost to herself.  

I shrug.  

“That depends on you, doesn’t it?  Whether or not it matters to you.  There’s no definite answer to this.”  I reply.  She gives me an odd look.

“You seem to have thought about this a lot.”  

“Yes.  Yes, I have.”  I consider my own blood-stained hands.  All the people I’ve killed.

“And you still haven’t really come to an answer, have you?”  The redhead asks.  

“I’ve come to an answer.”  I respond.  

“But it doesn’t mean anything.”  She counters.

“I guess that depends on you, too.”  I say, simply.  “I don’t think there’s ever going to be a correct answer.”

“There has to be a correct answer.”

“No.”  I say, wistfully.  “No, not at all.”  

 

_“Y’know, if you spend all your time questioning everything, you’re going to run out of time.”_

_“Don’t be silly.  That just means I have to find the answers faster.”_

_“Tyler, if you spend all your time trying to puzzle out the correct answer...”_

_“Then what?”_

_“Then you won’t be prepared to be wrong.”_

“You can’t be right all the time.  So sometimes you have to be prepared to not know.”  I quote.

This gives her pause.  “Why not?”

“Why not what?”

“Why can’t I be right all the time?”  She says, looking lost.

“That’s obvious.”  I say, walking past her.  “Because...”

“Because then there would be no point in living.”  


	3. Battle Trance, Part 3

“It’s here.”  Anna whispers.  

I didn’t need her warning to know.  I can sense the dense magic in the air.  This is where it is most concentrated.

“I don’t like it.”  I whisper back.  The invisible fog of energy weighs down on me.  

A bead of sweat trails down my face.  We’ve been running for a really long time with little break in between, but neither of us want to stop.  

“Neither do I, but...it’s passive.  This is just pre-existing energy.  It won’t hurt us.  It can’t.  This is just abandoned energy.”  She says, confident.

“What does that mean for us?”  I ask.

“Well...I think...This, this..oh.  Oh.  I’m an idiot.  Tyler, all this energy is...it’s for the Omniscient Guardian.”

The Omniscient Guardian.  The guardian of the Lightning keystone.  Its name implies an all-seeing monster of some sort.  

Hopefully it’s just a moniker.

“Why do you think that?”  

“All this passive energy...and this, this, this latent feel of darkness.  It’s...just a sense of wrong.”  She replies, concentrating.  

I have no idea what she’s talking about.  The mana feels all the same to me, oppressive.  I tell her so.

“Hm...that’s probably because you’re not in touch with your magic as finely as I am.  You rely more on your swords, I think, and haven’t properly explored your magic.”

Sounds about right.  

We hasten our pace slightly, so close to our goal.  Nothing attacks us, though there are plenty of scares.  Anna trips over a tree root and I wait for her to catch up.

The second time, I realize it isn’t an accident.  

“Hey.  Are you okay?”  I ask, concerned.

“It’s...It’s getting hard to see.  The energy is clouding my vision.”

My eyes are perfectly fine.  It must be that thing she told me about, how she’s more in tune with magic than I am.  

“Do you want me to help you?”  I ask, the words slipping out before I can stop them.

I...what am I doing!?

“N-No.  I’ll be fine.”  The magician says, getting back up.  

“If you say so.”  I murmur, unconvinced, but not willing to push.  We continue our pace, though I slow down for her sake.

Why...why am I concerned?  Anna is a liability now, and an obstacle.  I shouldn’t be...this is my chance...

The mana around us pulses, hard.

I flinch as it ripples through me, creating an unsettled feeling that is immediately broken.

“Did you feel that?” I ask Anna.

She doesn’t reply.

When I turn around, I realize why.

The time field...

Anna stares at me, a shocked look on her face.

Frozen to her face.

She’s caught in the time field.  It must have recalibrated, effectively retrapping anything new that entered the time field.

...Why aren’t I?  

Gingerly, I poke Anna’s cheek, snatching my hand back.

She’s coooold.  

And why didn’t that pull her out of it?  According to her, anything that I influence should...

Am I caught in my own time loop, then, without knowing?  Will I reset to an unknown starting position, too?

Or was Anna wrong?  About how to break people out of a time field.  It’s completely possible.  When would she have been in a time field, anyways?

Or...

Is this not a time field?  

There’s no way of knowing.  All I can go is forward.

I scratch out a quick arrow in front of Anna so she realizes where I’ve gone if she gets out on her own.  

That’s it, then.  There’s nothing else I can do for her.  Sighing unhappily, I continue my run.

I should be relieved that such a powerful obstacle was removed from the field without my intervention, that I didn’t need to expend any of my own energy to take her cleanly out of the race.

But I’m not.  That’s the problem.

It doesn’t take long for something new to happen.  I’m running, invisible mana pressing against me, and then I’m not, stumbling as the weight is lifted off of my shoulders.  

Am I out of the weird time field, or is this some other trick or trap.  There’s no point in hanging around to find out, so I keep going.  

The forest pathway ends, leading me out onto an open, grassy plain.  The sun is high in the sky.  It seems that I’ve run through the entire night.  It’s light enough for me to see across the clearing.  In the center is a small stone building of some sort.  A hut.  As I cautiously move closer, I can see that the stones are cracked.  

This must be where the Book lies, exactly where Anna and I suspected it would be.  But...

It’s about nine feet tall, too high for me to reach.  It’s about ten feet, lengthwise, in the shape of a cube with a triangular roof.  

As I circle the stone hut, I realize there’s no entrance.  Looking through the cracks in the stone, I can’t see anything but darkness.  Tentatively, I lash out with my sword, striking what appears to be a weak spot.  

My blade chips.  I stare at it, dismayed, noticing a tiny flaw in the center of the blade.

Alright, so it’s impervious to physical damage, at least any I can bring to bear.  Magical?  

I sheath one sword and launch a Fire Bolt from an intermediate distance away.  As the flames touch the stone, they’re absorbed with no effort, a slight purple shimmer marking its disappearance as runes etch themselves across the stones, steaming slightly.

...I can’t read those.  I suspect Anna would be of use, as a magician, but I’m not.  I have no idea what those say, no idea what they even mean.  They seem to be a bunch of arbitrary lines and curves drawn aimlessly.  I crouch down to examine them.

Well...what if they’re pictographs?  They don’t seem to mean anything, but...

There seem to be four distinct groups, so I consider them letters and peer at them one at a time.

The first one looks like...a crisscross of lines and curves.

The second one...much the same, albeit in a slightly different pattern.

The third one are five lines overlapping at the ends, a misshapen pentagon.

The fourth one bears much resemblance to an upside down bird.  

I reach down to touch them, but pause, my fingers a hairsbreadth away from touching the stone.

It’s...hot?  I can feel the heat, even from here, now that I’m looking for it...and then I realize that touching it would probably burn my fingers off.  

I sigh hopelessly.  This is futile.  Maybe if I trigger more runes...?  That might be the best course of action.  I can experiment with different things and compare what happens.  Perhaps this is a magic puzzle of some kind.

Standing up, I prepare to launch another Fire Bolt from my free hand when I hear a soft swishing sound.  

A footstep on soft grass.  The slight sound is all I need to whirl around, swords raised.

A lunge so powerful that the offending weapon, a thin rapier, actually manages to deflect my heavier sword, forcing me to bend back a little.  I swing with my other blade, attempting to slash as my obviously female attacker passes through where my right shoulder used to be, but she deflects the blow simply by drawing a knife from her waist, letting the metal clash in that precise spot before resheathing it mid-air.

She lands nimbly, spinning around to face me as I simultaneously jump back, creating distance.  My instincts scream a warning as my eyes lock onto the white mask covering her face.

This girl...this girl is dangerous.

And the proof stains my torn right sleeve.  

My attacker attempts to slam a knee into my stomach, but I pivot and force her away through momentum, my sword spinning out around me in a protective circle as I simultaneously draw my second blade, lunging forward while she is off balance.

That’s just a feint, though, and she darts under my guard in an attempt to skewer me.  I divert the strike with my elbow, slamming the flat of the blade aside.  I jump back, regaining difference, and give her a once-over.

The most obvious thing is a featureless white mask.  The second most obvious thing is their build, their body type, the petite build making it obvious that she is a girl.

There’s a white, featureless mask covering her face.  Short brown hair peeks behind the mask.  A brown long coat billows behind her, hiding the rest of her clothing.  She’s rather short, a few inches under me, but, for all that, she would have run me through twice had I been even a second slower.  She’s slim and lithe and if I didn’t know better, I’d pin her down as a dancer.

But my entire body screams that she’s dangerous, and she certainly acts the part, our blades sparking as they clash.

She wields a thin rapier,the metal surprisingly strong.   It has an intricate, jeweled hilt that she holds with ease.  The whole weapon seems to be made of silver, with leather wrapped around the guard and precious gems decorating the hilt.   I block a downstroke that quickly transforms into a series of stabs that spark off of my guard.   

She’s fast, so fast.  Her fighting style is unrestrained and unorthodox, a deadly mix.  As she surprises me, my wounds increase, though I manage to keep anything too dangerous from landing.

A flourish of her blade cuts my cheek open, though I somewhat make up for this by landing a kick into her stomach.

The sun is high above us, illuminating our battle.  Her sword arm tenses.  Silver!  My brain screams, as she tilts the blade ever so slightly and sunlight sears my eyes, reflected off of the precious metal.

     On pure instinct, I jump back again, crossing my swords in an X.  I manage to block both of her strikes - fast! - and land on my feet, my blades already lashing out in a practiced pattern.  

     We trade blows rapidly back and forth.  I’m wary for more flashes, but she seems more interested in stabbing me with lightning-quick strikes that I barely manage to keep up with.  Without my second sword, I would have been overwhelmed, and indeed, some of my blocks are pure luck.

“A dual-wielder?  Pretty interesting.”  My attacker comments thoughtfully.  A sudden flash and another attempt to pierce my chest, blocked.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t think I’d ever have to fight someone quite as tricky as you.”  The next glint of light occurs as she’s running at me and I narrowly escape decapitation.  As it is, I’m barely keeping up with her constant movement and strafing, and the beams of sunlight being directed at my face do not help.

“I take that as a compliment.”  The girl says, as her rapier opens up a small laceration on my left wrist with a lightning-fast stab.  She dodges my kick aimed at her stomach and flips away before dashing sideways, parrying my quick attempt at disarming her with an upwards slash.

Her frenzy of nearly untrackable slashes and stabs increases in speed, until I’m pushed solely on defense, her feet moving in a rapid pattern as her silver blade blurs through the air...

She dances away as I slash at her head, before a quick thrust cuts through my longcoat, barely missing.  She parries a swipe at her abdomen then rolls out of the way of my left-handed stab, leaving behind another wound on my left arm as she gets out of point-blank distance.  Backing away, I take a defensive position.

She’s smart enough to not get baited by the intentional openings I leave in my defense, fast enough to take advantage of unintentional openings, and tricky enough to make continuing the fight dangerous.  No, this is the better option.  A defensive stand relying on powerful attacks - the one thing she has yet to match me in.

_Flash.  Flash._

A triple stab, all three hits landing on my left-hand sword.  My instincts tell me to counterattack, but I don’t, concentrating.  

 _Block.  Block._  She moves to one side, now that I’m in a stationary position, and I track her effortlessly, parrying repeatedly.

Then the sword in my left hand shatters, her blade striking the chip that I had been examining earlier.  I throw myself sideways, but can’t completely dodge.  A feint, and then her sword tears into my right shoulder, and it is only through strength of will that I retain my grip.  Fortunately, I am ambidextrous, but this will seriously damage my fighting ability.  

_Calm down.  Focus._

My left hand finds the hilt of my remaining sword, in a defensive stance.  My eyes flutter shut, as the brushes of light bounce ineffectual against my darkened vision.   

“Something new?”  Her voice wonders, interest piqued.  With my eyes closed...

_The slightest movement, wind --_

She slashes at my throat.  I parry easily, turning as she tries to get behind me.  

_\-- all will be revealed and all I have to do --_

     I parry, and two stabs in the same second, aimed at my head and throat --

    _\-- is listen to see everything --_

     Blocked, a wide sweep knocking her back a step.  

_\-- Insight._

     I step inside one of her stabs, grab her by the throat, and slam her covered forehead against mine, cracking the mask.  

     The darkness fades from my vision as she gasps and stumbles back, my hand releasing her as I follow up with a hard left straight, my fist shattering the white porcelain.

I stare as the pieces fall to the ground, revealing a beautiful, young, scared face.

      Naked shock in her sapphire eyes, lips parting slightly in shock...

_...Beautiful._

      I don’t press my attack, watching as the crystals cloud with fear and indecision before hardening into burning resolve.

_What presses you, girl?_

She lunges at me, sword speaking where she doesn’t, and our wills clash, manifested in our blades.

Our blades clash again, but she’s not as fast now, perhaps too intimidated.  Not as powerful, as fast.  I riposte, the force of my blow forcing her to trip back once more, and I take the initiative and swing in a horizontal arc, and she blocks -- a decision almost as bad as taking the hit.  Her arms tremble with exertion as the thin blade of her rapier bends.

    “You’re going to lose this fight.”  I state.  It’s not an opinion, and it’s not banter.  It’s cold, hard truth.  And I think the certainty in my voice shakes her, because her blade slips for a second and I headbutt her, again.

     The broken skin of her forehead drips blood, a crimson trail sliding down her face, mesmerizing.  I can see the fear in her eyes, even as she kicks me in the stomach and darts to the side.  

But it’s not much use for her to fight anymore.  I see everything she does now.  I know how she moves, how she fights, and it’s far too late for her to try anything.

Taking advantage of a small opening, I push forward, slapping away her rapier with my weapon as my foot slams into her stomach in a lunging kick.  She chokes out blood, crying out in pain.  I don’t press my attack, staring.  

_She’s as young as I am._

     But...this is reality.  Where teenagers kill to survive, to fight to live, to get their one Wish.  I can’t...feel pity.  I can’t hesitate.  

Then why does my blade not move to finish her off?

My eyes narrow.  No more chances, then.

She stands up to fight again, but her resolve is shaken.  I can see it in her eyes, the way a glimmer of fear shines through the cracks.

This girl...

_She’s a runner, I see._

_What are you running from?_

_What are you scared of?_

My sword cuts her cheek.  As she involuntarily flinches, my sword gets under her guard and freezes, an inch away from her heart.

Then I roundhouse kick her in the head.  

She hits the ground hard, cringing, only a few feet away from the stone hut.

Look at me.  I’m still doing it.  Why?  Why am I giving so many chances to her?  I know without a doubt that she wouldn’t be hesitating right now, had the roles been reversed.  She has killing intent.  Hell, she tried to kill be with a sneak attack right from the beginning!  There’s no reason I should be holding my blade.  

The brunette recovers, pushing herself to her knees, blade in hand.  Her eyes meet mine, crystal blue drills of resolve and anger.  I involuntarily take a step back, shocked.

_Where did that come from?_

_Where does your strength come from?_

She’s still on the ground.  All I have to do is raise my hand and whisper a simple incantation, and I could burn her alive.  Or take a step forward and swing, severing her head from her body.

I do neither, letting her climb to her feet.

“W-What...are you...doing?”  She mutters, holding her rapier tightly.  

_I’d like to know the answer to that question, too._

Her blade sparks, once, and then it comes alive in electricity, the intense energy crackling as she raises her weapon once more in a final stand.

I watch, watch as she stabs forward, the lightning seeming to extend from her blade and giving it a little extra range.  

I grab the sword and stop it in its tracks as she stares, unable to comprehend what’s happening.  

“My gloves are insulated.”  I murmur, as the electricity dissipates.  I raise my free hand and fire off a minor electric spell, forcing her to let go or be electrocuted.  

I stare even as she dodges sideways, as my lightning spell hits the stone hut and dissipates with a crackling sound, runes appearing on the stones once more as the old ones fade away.

The ones that appeared with fire appeared with a hint of steam...

And the lightning ones crackled.

The fire one was hot, very hot.

Does that mean that...?

I dodge a swipe of steel and realize that Lindsey has resorted to the dagger.  I shake my eyes and hold my ground, parrying and keeping her confined to the area directly in front of me with warning slashes.

She must know that I’m toying with her.

_So why does she fight?_

The resolve is stronger than ever, even if her body screams that she will lose.  Her eyes...are brighter than all of the stars of the night.

I stare, trying to understand.

I can’t.

I don’t know why she’s standing right now.

It doesn’t matter.  Soon she won’t be.

With a single powerful swipe, I disarm her and then lunge forward again, kicking her square in the chest.

The blow sends her stumbling back as the air is forced out of her lungs.  Directly...

Directly into the stone hut.

A second, as the magical forcefield glows brightly, and then a thunderous flash and sparking sound as something hits me hard in the chest, sending me flying.

Hitting the ground hurts.  Breathing is harder, I find, realizing that something is still very much weighing me down.

Shoving whatever it is off of me unceremoniously, I realize that it is a girl.

The one that was attacking me, specifically.

She’s definitely, finally unconscious.  Electrical burns wind their way up her legs, though they don’t look too serious.  The brown cloak that covered her is tattered, but it seems to have absorbed a lot of the electricity.  Without it, I suspect that the girl would be dead.

And she is alive.  Touching two fingers to her throat, I note that her heart is still beating strongly.

...Now what?

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reference is somewhat subtle, but for those who've read Journey's End, you might be interested to note that there is actually a reference to what you know as the True Battle Trance in this chapter.


	4. Terms of Friendship, Part 1

First things first; my test on the magical barrier was successful.  The mana takes the type of whatever magical attack hits it...and, seemingly, it’s characteristics.  

It gives me an idea to break it, anyways.  I fire off a basic Ice attack and watch it be absorbed, dissipating with a flurry of ice particles.

Then I pick up her rapier, the silver blade better than mine for conducting electricity, and run electricity through the blade.

It’s not too hard to do.  Electricity is sporadic, but certain things it does is predictable.  Once I create a connection to the blade, the electricity will continue to flow.  Willing electricity to flow through my fingers, it isn’t long before a spark hits the silver and the blade goes alight.

There must be a simpler way to do that, rather than relying on luck, but I can’t figure out how.  Either way, this is good enough for my purposes.

Ice magic is strong, very strong.  Hard to pierce.  But it also has high surface tension, and...once pierced, it tends to fall apart like so much glass.  

That characteristic is what I’m relying on.  Electricity is great at pure piercing power when honed properly.  I can’t do that myself with magical attacks, only knowing basic fire and electric spells...but I have a medium here, with the girl’s rapier.  Silver, after all, is highly conductive.

The actual attack itself is highly anticlimactic.  I simply lash out with the rapier, attempting to pierce the stone.  

The magical barrier appears, light blue, resisting my attack.  Before it can absorb the new type of attack, I straighten my arm.

And the barrier gives way my blade pounding into the stone wall and going through it.

I watch as cracks form rapidly around the shield surrounding the stone hut, growing and then glowing with a bright white light before the whole thing simply collapses, the magic shards fading away.  A loud, explosive sound rings through the clearing as I wince, hands flying to my ears in case of further noises.  

The wind blows through my hair and that’s when I realize.

Time is flowing again.  It always was, with the stone hut; the magical barrier should not have been able to adapt if it was frozen.  What I broke into, then, must have been the...generator of sorts, for the time field.

I watch as the clearing comes to life, the trees and grass swaying in the breeze.  

Then the exhaustion hits all at once, the staggering realization of what I’ve done striking me.

I’ve broken the lock to the Book.

Behind me, the girl stirs, her eyes snapping open.  I realize that I’m still holding her rapier, though my magic has long since dissipated from the blade.

Her gaze slides from me, to her sword, to the hut behind me, and then finally to her legs, covered in electrical burns, and she winces.

“Ah.”  She murmurs, staring past me into the distance.  There’s a melancholy look to her eyes.

It disturbs me, and I shake my head, trying to lose these feelings of compassion.  It’s just like Anna, all over again.  I’m getting soft.

“What’s your name?”  I ask, giving up.  There’s no point resisting my emotions now, not when I’m so tired.

“...It doesn’t matter.”  The girl replies, serene, staring at the ground.  “I’ve lost.  You’ve won.  Please get it over with, quickly.”

I stare at her, dumbfounded.

“Quickly, please.”    

“Well, yeah, I won.  But I never said I was going to kill you.”  I respond.  Her head snaps up to meet mine, her eyes boring into mine.

Sapphire pools, swirling with confusion.

“Why not?”  The girl asks.

“I don’t want to.”  

“Why not?”  She presses.  I blink.

“Do you, uh, want me to kill you?”  I inquire.  She stares at the ground.

“...No.”  

“Well, there.  That much is settled.”  I kneel in front of her, setting her rapier besides me.  “Let me fix your legs a little.”

“Fix...?”

“Well, I can’t heal them...but I can soothe them so they don’t bother you as much, and accelerate the healing process.  It’s not too hard.”  

“Okay...”  Her voice, so quiet that I can barely hear.  I carefully take one of her legs in mine, admiring the softness of her skin and wincing at the damage I caused.  

My fingers glowing with icy energy, I carefully, carefully touch the largest of the electrical burns.  She winces, but doesn’t flinch away.  

This is the hardest part, breaking up my energy into harmless streams.  The slightest mistake will punch a hole right through her leg.  

Focusing, I let the energy flow from my fingertips, letting it mingle with her latent mana as it spreads over the injury, cooling it and soothing the inflammation.

A quiet gasp of relief escapes her mouth.  I ignore it, continuing to let the energy spread, softening the worst of the damage and providing general relief.  When I’m satisfied that I’ve done as much as I can, I retract my fingers, letting my energy stay inside.

“Is that better?”  I ask.  She nods, mutely.

“There’s more, though.”  Another nod, and I lean down to continue my work, bandaging it carefully before moving on.

It’s between the fourth and fifth burn on her other leg that I hear her whisper.

“What?”  I ask, not having quite caught it.

“Lindsey.  My name is Lindsey.”  She whispers, staring at the ground.  

“Ah.  I’m Tyler.”  I reply, at a loss, but feeling pleased in an odd sort of way.

She mumbles something under her breath.

“What was that?”  I ask.  

“I’m sorry for breaking your sword.”  She responds, morosely.  I shrug and continue healing her knee.

When I finish with her legs, I move to her forehead, though there’s nothing I can do there.  I can’t patch skin together.  Instead, I silently rip off a line from a roll of bandages in my cloak and infuse it with ice mana, offering it to her.

“T-Thanks.”  She murmurs, quietly, staring at the scrap before applying it to her head.

“No problem.”  I answer, feeling oddly light.  I pin it down as a result of my exhaustion, a state which has only been made worse by the amount of mana I’ve spent healing the girl.

“Is there anything I missed?”  I question, studying her carefully.  There’s a light blush on her cheeks, caused by the cool temperatures, I think.

“No.  I’m okay now.”  Lindsey replies, still as quiet as ever.  I stand up and offer my hand to her.  After a moment of consideration, she accepts it, allowing me to help her up.

“Why did you do all of that?”  She asks.  “You gain nothing from it.  So...why?”

I shrug.  “I honestly don’t know.  It just felt like something I should do, so I did it?”

_You filthy liar._

_You know you only did it because you’re a slave to anything that reminds you of her._

I blink at the dark voice in my head, ignoring it.

“I...I see.”  She says, though her questioning tone indicates that she clearly doesn’t.  That’s okay.  I’m just as clueless as she is.  

“Tyler!”  A voice, a familiar one.  I spin to see Anna running across the clearing, eliciting a smile from me.  

I had completely forgotten that I pulled down the time barrier.  It’s nice to see confirmation, though.

The redhead magician stops short in front of us, examining Lindsey with the same analytical look she used to judge me.  Lindsey does the same, looking uncertain.

“Hi.  I’m Anna!”  She says brightly, reaching out for a handshake.  “Nice to meet you, um...?”  

Lindsey stares at her hand, bemused, before tentatively reaching out to grasp it.

“I’m...Lindsey.”  She yelps and pulls away when Anna shakes it, the magician giving her an odd look.

And I note with amusement and exasperation that Anna has just, intentionally or otherwise, initiated Lindsey into our little party.

“Nice to meet, you, Lindsey!”  She says, cheerfully.  “How’d you meet Tyler?”

“She helped me figure out the Book’s puzzle.”  I interject, before Lindsey says anything incriminating.  She glances at me apprehensively and I send her a small smile in return.

“Oh?  Cool!  That makes two people who weren’t affected by the time field pulse.”  Anna frowns.  I’d forgotten all about that, to be honest.  “That’s really frustrating.  Too many variables and uncertainties.  I don’t know why things are happening.”  

“Ah!  Speaking of which!”  The witch whirls to face me.  “Have you gotten to, uh...you know...?”  I know exactly what she’s referring to.

“Nope.”  

“CanIcanIcanIcanI--”  She begs.

“Go for it.  I’m not interested in it.”  Anna gives me an odd look before she shoots past me, kicking her way into the stone hut before disappearing inside.  

Lindsey and I stare after her.

“You are...different, aren’t you?”  She whispers.  

“Huh?”

“To give up that kind of power so easily...and then you spared my life...and then, just now...why?”  

I consider the question thoughtfully.

“You know...I’m not entirely sure.  I didn’t think I was like this.  But...I don’t know.  It feels wrong to stop this.  It feels...right.”

_Is this Lilly?  Is this her influence?_

_What have you done to me...?_

“I see.”  

She clearly doesn’t.  The confusion in her eyes is clear as day, but it is amusing to see.

“I’m going to go run a perimeter check.”  I decide.  “That barrier collapse probably attracted a lot of people.”

“Okay.”  She looks like she wants to say something more, so I wait.

“Would you...mind if I joined you?”  Lindsey asks.  The question makes me smile somewhat.

“I would not.”  

_A slave!_

_Shut up!_

We start running without further interruptions, quickly arriving at the forest clearing.  I note that Lindsey’s faster than me, an interesting fact but not altogether surprising, considering her fast-paced, position-based style.  

“Left or right?”  I ask her, in a moment of whimsy.

“Um...left?”  She replies, an odd look on her face.

Like she’s hoping she picked the correct answer...?

“Okay.”  I say, and then we run along the line.  I focus intently on the trees, watching for the slightest hint of odd movement.

A cacophony of sound flows; birds chirping, wind blowing, leaves crunching.

Crunching?

I stop and draw my sword, Lindsey following suit.  Acting on instinct, I raise my free hand and launch a Fire Bolt into the trees in front of me.

It doesn’t take long for the people I detected to appear, three people in black cloaks and white porcelain masks.

I knew we had forgotten something.

There were eleven members of that odd party.  Anna and I only killed eight, and we forgot about the rest, consumed by various issues and thoughts.  But...of course they’d still be here.

White porcelain masks.

Wait, wasn’t Lindsey wearing one of those...?

That means --

Lindsey sprints past me, kicks off a tree to change direction rapidly, and plunges her rapier into the throat of the nearest member, blowing them off their feet with her momentum.

I guess that answers that.

The two remaining members split up; one trails after where Lindsey was last seen, and the other one turns to face me.

Ah.  This one...this is the one I identified as their leader.

“You killed my friends.”  He says, tonelessly.  “And so now I shall kill you.  My name is Adam.  Prepare to die.”

I ignore the banter and examine my opponent.

Adam has a large broadsword and a tall tower shield, and is dressed in iron.  Slow, then, but powerful.  And I only have one sword, too.  I don’t know if I can pull the speed advantage here, disadvantaged as I am, but...I think I’ll take a page from Lindsey’s book, and use the surroundings to my advantage.

I open with an Ice Spear straight off the bat, the blue energy solidifying in my hand and launched as a projectile weapon.  As predicted, he blocks the icicle against his shield, raising it in defense.  Fine by me, as I use it as a springing board, jumping forward and kicking off of it to get above him.  

My downward slash is repelled as he moves his shield higher, and I fall back to earth, jumping away as his sword slams on the ground.  My eyes narrow when the ground frosts on impact.

An Ice-type affinity like me?  Or is he branching out?

I slash quickly twice at him, but he blocks with his ever-present tower shield before lashing out with his blade.  I respond by ducking the blow and thrusting at his heart, but he forces the barrier between us just in time and pushes outward, forcing me to retreat slightly.

Adam mutters an incantation, his shield glowing aqua blue before he slams the bottom against the ground.  Eyes widening, I leap sideways as a row of short, but extremely sharp ice crystals appear on the ground in a quick-traveling line, uprooting a few trees among the way.  

Definitely ice, then.  That was an advanced skill, for sure.

After a few more minutes of what amounts to little more than stalling, I decide to try something else.

“The longer you take, the less time you have to save your friend.”  I say, smirking.

“John’s stronger than anything the two of you can muster.  He’ll break apart your pretty little friend like a twig.”

A scream of pain rings out through the forest from a short distance away, and it’s definitely male.  I smirk when Adam’s face goes pale.

“You sure about that?”  I ask.  

The man himself stumbles into the clearing and continues to run, left arm bleeding profusely and a large ice shield maintained in front of him, hovering in the air.  

A glint of sunlight and Lindsey’s electrified rapier pierces the shield and the man in a shower of blood, the girl nowhere to be found.  Thrown, then.

Is Lindsey injured, too?  

“Yup.”  I deadpan.  “Definitely breaking my ‘pretty little friend’ into pieces right about now.”  I throw myself back as his sword comes slamming down, before using it as a stepping stool up and slashing at him, drawing blood on his arm.

What comes out of his mouth after that is unintelligible, and I dart away, my back to an evergreen oak.  I dodge his sideways swing by jumping over it, then away as the tree comes crashing down, landing precariously on the branches of a nearby tree.

I can use this.  I neatly sidestep an attack while concentrating on creating fire in my free hand.  When ready, I whisper the incantation and my mana takes form.  I throw the fireball at him, aiming high, and he predictably blocks with his shield.  

The attack explodes into embers that rain down all around him.  Two of them make their way onto the nearest tree and catch it alight.  

Adam is blissfully unaware of this, stepping over the embers immediately in front of him.  He’ll notice soon enough, but I just need to stall and keep his back to the fire.  

 

And that much is easy.  He’s practically frothing at the mouth, determined to tear me to pieces.  The rage makes his attacks easy to dodge, straightforward and skill-less.

“Who was that?  Your lover?”  I taunt, dancing around his blows and slowly leading him in a circle.  

He swears at me repeatedly, every word punctuated by a blow.  I stop pretending to dodge and start running, prompting him to chase under me.

Glancing up, I note that the fallen oak, propped up as it is, is now burning and listing dangerously.  I cut through the rapidly spreading flames with a flying leap, peppering Adam with a series of icicles to bait him.

And he falls for it.  Stupidly, stupidly, he charges through the fire with a magical aura, dampening the flames around him.  

His shield, of course, has no such strength.  Using it as an ice conductor made the steel brittle, and the intense heat has weakened it.  And now he is trying to reintroduce ice to the mix.  All the temperature changes have made the formerly strong steel easy to snap, and I do so, coating my blade before stabbing right through the center, forcing him to jump away or be pierced.

“Stop running, coward!”  He shouts.  

I shrug.  “Okay.”

Then the creaking oak falls, pinning him to the ground and eliciting a scream of agony.

I end those quickly with a Fire Bolt to the face and run away from the mess, seeking Lindsey as the forest burns around us.

The search is short; all I have to do is escape into the clearing and she’s there, covered in blood.  

“Are you okay?”  I ask, concerned.  She nods, still gasping for breath.

“Harder fight...than I thought...”  I examine her closely.

The remains of a blood trail follow her out from her path.  The distinct brown of dried blood trails down the side of her mouth, indicative of her having choked up blood at some point.  She heavily favors her right leg, and blood trails down her limp left arm.

“Here, let’s go back to the stone hut.”  I sheath my sword and wrap my arm around her to support her, and together we limp our way towards the center of the clearing.

As we get closer, we notice a large bloodstained sword propped against the entrance, and the distinct timbre of a man’s voice.

Anna!

 

 

 


	5. Terms of Friendship, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be a week long break between this chapter and the next.

To my extreme annoyance, Anna is fraternizing with the enemy when we rush our way in.

“Hi, everyone!”  Anna says cheerfully, blithely undercutting the tension in the room as I scan the other two occupants.  

One is a tall male, seeming to be in his young twenties.  He exudes an aura of seriousness.  He is fairly large, with a collared, dark blue longcoat.  Underneath this, he wears a black undershirt and shorts.  The hints of a black moustache appear on his face.  His onyx eyes drill into my own, and we have a brief staring contest before he blinks.

The other man -- no, a boy -- has interesting coloring.  His eyes are an intriguing shade of purple, and his light brown hair is hopelessly messy.  He wears a long coat similarly to the other male’s, though his clothing choice matches his eyes.  

“Who are they?”  The taller, unidentified male asks.  I quickly analyze the way everyone’s situated; the way Anna’s eyes flicker towards the speaker and back, the way the boy’s grip tightens on his iron shield and small sword and he shifts slightly, prepared to move if necessary, the way everyone seems comfortable cramped in the small area.

“My friends.”  Anna replies, smiling.  

Lindsey twitches slightly, easing her weight off of me to stand on her own feet.  

I stare, watching, examining, learning.

“Anna, are these your childhood friends?”  I ask.  The comfortable atmosphere that Lindsey and I have broken...it’s the most feasible option, I think.  At the very least, they clearly know each other.  

“Yes, Phoenix and Raffy,” She points to the taller male and boy in turn, “Meet Tyler and Lindsey.”  She gestures to us.

“Nice to meet you.”  I say.  I don’t particularly mean it, but I suspect that Phoenix and Raffy are already joining with us.

Interesting.  Anna is the glue that holds all of us together.  I’m not even sure if Lindsey wants to be here.  It’s something I’ll ask her about later, when we’re in relative privacy.  

And there’s something else, too.

My eyes narrow.

The slight red in Anna’s eyes, the tired and slightly forced smile.  Has she been crying?  Did they make her cry, or was it something else?  The obvious assumption is that something they did was the catalyst, but I won’t say anything until I find a moment of peace.

There’s a slight tension that no one is entirely sure how to breach.  

Lindsey’s arm quietly drips blood onto the ground.

“You’re hurt?”  I murmur, realizing that the blood is hers.  

“Y-Yes.”  She replies back, slowly shifting her weight back onto me.  Nodding at Anna, and at her friends, I turn around and help the girl out.

 

Outside, Lindsey props herself against the stone wall and I gently lift her arm, pushing back her sleeve.

The problem makes itself aware readily, in the form of a thin hole right through her left shoulder.

“How’d you get this?”  I ask, examining the wound.  

“A lightning needle.”  She replies, wincing as I gently probe at the wound.  “He got...lucky.”  

I nod.  “So the paralyzation is probably from the electricity, then.  If it hasn’t severed anything important, then this should heal in a week or two.  Here, let me bandage this.”

“I can...I can do it.”  The brunette says, looking shakily.  I give her a disbelieving look.  

“With one arm?”  She nods, determined.  

“Alright, then.”  I pull a roll of medical tape from the inside of my cloak, placing it in her free hand before my gaze shifts lower.  Her limp...

She directs me to a cut mid-thigh, the bandage roll pinned between her fingers and teeth as she rips a section off.  I clinically push her cloak aside to access the injury better, but not before noting her outfit; red T-shirt and white skirt.

“Electricity?”  I ask.  She nods, again.  All there’s to do is bandage it, but she’s still possessively holding the roll, her shoulder covered in a textbook-perfect wrap.

With a sigh, I leave her to do that, too, my gaze going back up.

I point at a discolored area on the lower half of her shirt.  As I reach to pull up, her hands beat me there, holding down her clothing.

“Lindsey.”  I say, exasperated, as she glares at me with a fierce challenge in her eyes.  I roll mine before leaning back, satisfied with my rudimentary medicine.

Her injuries give me an interested thought, though.  Clearly, her opponent had a more...tangible form of lightning, using it as a cutting implement shortly before Lindsey turned it against him.  I’ve always been under the impression that electricity is wild and uncontrolled, but these people are clearly manipulating it skillfully.

It’s something I want to add to my arsenal.  Lightning is the most powerful offensive element, overpowering most anything when fighting on an equal level.  And my magical repertoire is solely lacking.

Meanwhile, there’s the Book, with its time magic instruction.  I wonder how she’s doing with that.  I suspect that we are, at some point, going to take that with us.  Maybe I’ll peruse it at some point.

There’s a voice in me that balks at the thought, though.  Messing with time...

That’s a dangerous thought if there ever was one.

 

“Are you taking the Book?”  I question Anna, as we get set to move out.  

“Yup.”  She replies.  “I finished reading everything, and I have a photographic memory, so I know everything about it, but there’s no point in leaving it behind, y’know?”  

“Alright.  Let’s go, then.”  Anna hefts the book, handing it to Phoenix, who has a small backpack.

She must trust him a lot, then.  I should ask her more about him when I get the chance.

Lindsey stares at the two with something like -- longing? -- on her face.  

So many questions...but I think these are questions I’m not supposed to ask.  It would feel like an invasion of privacy.

Like why Lindsey stares after two close friends with something akin to hopelessness.

Like why Anna sneaks peeks at Phoenix when she thinks he’s not looking.

Like why Lindsey seems so lost and lonely.

Like why Anna was crying, recently.

People are...complicated.  Not knowing isn’t a feeling I’m totally comfortable with yet.

But yet you have to be.

None of this makes sense to me.  This is becoming an increasingly common feeling, the more I spend time with people.  I just follow whatever Lilly’s memory tells me to, and it seems to work.  She’s the one who taught me, through trial and error, how to interact with people.

I smile, bitter.  To think that I thought she was the one who needed help that day.  Really, she was the most grounded of both of us.

Is that why it hurt so much when I lost her?  That’s a question I don’t even know how to approach.

And it bothers me, because my friends are hurting.

Woah.

Friends?

Anna and I helped each other out of mutually compatible objectives.  Lindsey tried to kill me.  Friends?

How odd.

I watch Anna, Raffy, and Phoenix.  Phoenix cracks some joke, sending the other two into peals of laughter.  It’s not something I understand yet, this rapport that they’ve built, each watching out for the other.

With Lilly, I didn’t have to do that.  The only time we ever had to fight together was...when she died.  But I can tell that these people trust each other intimately, knowing how to react.

Lilly and I didn’t really have that.  We trusted each other completely, of course...but we didn’t know each other the way these people do.  We had such a short time together.

“You seem bothered.”  Lindsey tells me, and I realize that she’s been staring at me for some time, that same naive look of confusion in her eyes.  Like I’m a puzzle to be figured out, except she doesn’t understand the question.

“Yeah.  I guess I’m just reminiscing.”  I say, watching the trio of friends playfully shove each other in the stone hut.  Raffy trips over backwards and falls, dropping his shield.  And all three laugh.

“I see.”  And I think she does see, to some extent, as she turns back to them.  Between the friendly push-fight that Anna and Phoenix have going -- and I note with some consternation that they’re touching a lot longer than strictly necessary for a shove -- the stronger and larger one wins, Anna tumbling out of the gap in the wall to fall next to Raffy.

And Phoenix steps out, his foot making contact with grass.

Immediately, Anna flinches, her hands going to her forehead.  I sense it, too, all the previously passive mana rushing and compressing into --

Phoenix slings his backpack off and dropkicks it over the stone hut, backpedalling away with alarm on his face.  I dart forward, grabbing Anna and dragging her to her feet, Lindsey doing the same for Raffy as Phoenix leaps away, the five of us a fair distance away.

Runes appear on the stone hut, twisting and whirling.  Anna pales as her eyes scan the stone.

“Knowledge will never be constrained by human limits -- oh, damn, it’s--”

Thinking quickly, I slam my hands to the ground with a hasty incantation and a thin wall of dense ice rises out of the ground in front of us, a second before the entire thing explodes in a flash of light, my ice wall holding for barely a split second before shattering.

But that time is precious; we’re all prepared for the blast, our arms shielding our heads as Raffy jumps in front of us, shield locked firmly into place; Anna raises a second, stronger wall with a slash of her wand and a shout -- and the worst of the force dissipates herself on her magic and on Raffy’s shield.

We’re still sent backwards, though, no one able to keep their balance, but it’s so much better than taking on the full power of the explosion.  Between the three of us, we’re alive and fairly injury free.

I note with gratitude that Raffy planted himself in front of Lindsey, the most injured of everyone.  That probably saved her from worsening her injuries, and I make a reminder to myself to thank him later.  The girl in question looks bewildered before muttering a hasty thank you, the boy nodding in reply.  

Smoke billows into the air, the deafening screech of a sword being pulled out of its scabbard ringing across the space separating.  And a massive shadow blocks out the sun, directing our gazes upward.  

“What...what the...”  Anna seems to be in shock.  I don’t blame her.

The Omniscient Guardian stands tall at easily thirty feet.  Wooden armor covers every inch of its humanoid body as it freely swings a giant stone broadsword, though the sheer size of the weapon slows down all movement to be fairly predictable.  Vines wrap around the monster for no apparent reason besides decoration.  Its head is a thick trunk of an oak tree with two eyeholes, gleaming yellow irises glittering with rage.

“This...THIS is the lightning keystone’s guardian?”  Phoenix asks, disbelieving.

“No.”  I whisper.  “But lightning is associated with the gods...”

“Omniscience.”  Anna replies.  “I don’t...this is...”

Lindsey taps me on the shoulder, ready to fight.

“Together?”  Lindsey asks, as we stare down the Omniscient Guardian, the tip of her rapier glowing.

“...Sure.  Why not?”  And we rush the monster, blades burning in our hands.

As we run, Anna launches several fireballs at the monster.  They dissipate harmlessly against the boss.

No.  Not dissipate.  They’re absorbed, with an orange glow and runes, and the giant stone sword explodes into flames.

“Holy -- move!”  I shout to Lindsey, and we split up as the flaming stone sword comes crashing down on the ground.  The sheer force of the hit sends fiery embers and earth everywhere, and I resort to a quick ice shield to protect my side.

Anna -- bless her, has the sense to follow up with an Earth attack, and the flames are extinguished.  The stone sword seems to have increased in weight.

Lindsey has managed to get behind the giant as it attempts to pull the heavy blade out of the ground, an electric blade in hand as she scales its back.  I launch a piercing ice javelin at the monster’s face to draw its attention, and it releases its grip on the now frozen broadsword to try and crush me with large palms.

It becomes a challenge, then, to avoid the heavy attacks.  Anna helps with pinpoint lightning attacks that seem to slow the giant down for precious fractions of a second as they pierce into muscle and tendon.

Then a roar of pain, as Lindsey backflips off of the giant, catches a vine on the way down, and hitting the ground with a roll.  

“Lindsey, your injuries...”  Blood soaks through the bandages I’ve applied to her left leg, and there’s a noticeable bloodstain over her left shoulder.

“I’m...fine.”  She grits her teeth.  “There’s more important things to worry about right now.”  

I want to protest and find that I can’t.  She’s right, I guess...but that doesn’t stop the concern I feel for my friend.

The Omniscient Guardian seems to be having some issues, I note, howling wildly and slamming its stone blade back and forth like it weighs nothing.  Lindsey and I retreat warily, making our way back to our party.

And then it stops and stares at me.

“It’s...it’s...”  Lindsey stutters, trembling.

“What?”  Anna asks, as I feel a sense of doom creep over my heart.

“...smiling...”  She whispers.

Then the giant dissolves in a crackle of electricity, leaving a girl in its place.

A familiar, familiar...

“Anna,” I ask, shakily, looking at the redhead female magician left behind by the Omniscient Guardian, “What the hell?”  

 

_Choose._

The Anna behind me.

The Anna in front of me.

_Choose._

One...at least one is an imposter.  For all I know, neither are the real Anna.  Was there actually an Anna at all?

_Choose._

Darkness coats my sight black and I stare with renewed vision.  

Anna 1, from behind me, fires a fireball at Anna 2, in front of me.  I deflect it into the ground.

“Tyler, what are you doing!?”  Anna 1 asks, looking annoyed.

“You could be the fake Anna firing at the real Anna.  As long as that possibility exists, I can’t let you attack, or do anything.”  I reason.  “So don’t move, on suspicion of being an impostor.”

I can see the gears spinning in her head as she arrives to a conclusion.  Watch as she nods and sits down, wand resting idly in hand, though pointed at the other Anna.  Watch as Phoenix and Raffy scamper away, wary.

Possibilities, cues, hints, ideas...

What if the imposter is truly omniscient?  If she can perfectly match the true Anna’s

personality?  If that’s the case, than the odds I don’t hit the true Anna is at least fifty percent.

No, I can’t think like that.  If I do, that negates all logical lines of thought and I may as well take a shot right now.  

Same for the possibility of two fake Anna’s.  No matter what I do, I have to shoot one; until evidence comes up suggesting that there are two fakes, I should focus on figuring out at least one out.

What would Anna tell me?  

“Shoot...her.”  Anna 2 says as she gets up from the ground.  “She’s the...fake.”

Anna 1 tenses, but does not respond to the allegation, brows furrowed in thought.

Phoenix and Raffy appear to be in deep thought, trying to figure out who is who.

Lindsey just looks...bewildered.  

I must assume that it is up to me; that the people around me are well and truly stumped and will bring nothing to the table.  I can’t rely on luck right now, not if I want to make the right decision.

“Anna, what is your favorite food?”  Phoenix asks, addressing Anna 1.  Whether or not it’s because she’s closer, or because she’s been ‘here’ with us longer...Anna’s 2 face grows desperate.

“Phoenix, don’t be ridiculous.  We’re facing off against the Omniscient Guardian; this is a logic puzzle that even I don’t know how to solve.  Something as basic and simple as that isn’t going to work.  But for the sake of confirming your rudimentary question, it’s spaghetti with butter.  I predict you intended to see if I could demonstrate my magical repertoire next, or any of a list of things that supposedly I should know if I were the real Anna.  However, we have not yet ruled out that the fake Anna, whomever she may be, knows everything and can do everything that the real Anna should know.  Until we do, we must assume that the Omniscient Guardian has omniscience before making any final judgements.”  Anna 1 looks infuriated, for whatever reason; possibly because of the cheap tactic involved, or because she can’t figure it out.

And what she says is true; while I would rather avoid considering the fact that the Omniscient Guardian may be able to perfectly mimic Anna, it must be considered.  I can’t come to a conclusion without first answering that.  

“You.”  I say, pointing to Anna 2, “Please sit next to her.”  

Anna 2 does so, though I notice she keeps a fair distance away from Anna 1, glaring at her copy distrustfully.

“Alright, then.  This question is open to both of you.”  I say, my voice taking on a hard tone.  Besides me, Lindsey stares at the two, trying to find physical imperfections.

They look exactly the same, from what I can tell.  That’s futile, and wouldn’t prove anything, anyways.

By far the most difficult point of this puzzle is simply that there’s no base to work from.  The Anna I might know could have been completely fake this whole time.  

Therefore, comparisons, simple interrogation, won’t work.  I must force the fake Anna to slip up in some manner.  And I must also assume...

“Question one.  If I were to guess the correct Anna and shoot the false one, would the Omniscient Guardian take the hit?”

Anna 2 raises her hand.  Anna 1 ignores all social convention and cuts in.

“It might.  It might not.  The Omniscient Guardian, for now, must be considered to be omniscient.  Therefore, it can be assumed that it has at least human intelligence, but it may also have mechanical intelligence.  If it has human intelligence, then it may know the concept of honor.  And it may choose to take the hit out of a sense of honor.  On the other hand, if it suspects that you just took a random guess, it may continue the puzzle, or even pretend to have been the real Anna.  And if it has a mechanical intelligence, then it would only want to survive, and would in no way take the hit.”

“So you don’t really know, then, do you?”  I reply scathingly.  

“I guess that depends on you.”  Anna 2 murmurs.

“Idiot.  Don’t think that quoting a past conversation will go anywhere towards convincing him.”  Anna 1 chastises.  “Tyler isn’t stupid, and I believe that he will determine the imposter, whether it is you or I.  Or,”  She grins ferally at me.  “If it is both of us.”  

Again, right on both counts.  Anna, are you falling apart under pressure, if you’re the second one?  Or are you approaching it clinically, detached and cool?  Or are you neither?  How can I possibly tell?  Surely, this is an impossible question.

No, I can’t think like that.  Or I may as well kill them both, because either way, I’ve definitely killed at least one fake.  

There must be a solution, somewhere.  A path I can take, to determine the truth.

What would Anna do?  Anna 1 isn’t sure how to solve the puzzle, and she’s the clinical one.  

“If the Omniscient Guardian is testing us, then what was the purpose of the first puzzle, and why link it to the second puzzle?”  

Anna 1 opens her mouth to answer.  Anna 2 lunges and punches her in the face before scampering to her seat as Phoenix raises his sword.

“T-The first one is to test strength, to see if we can survive.  The second one is to test observation and analysis.  The reason the first one felt so out of place is because it was a measure of strength, which shouldn’t be a part of omniscience.  And that’s the real prize here -- intelligence, not the lightning keystone.  Really, if you survive this test, you come out smarter.  But being intelligent means nothing if you can’t fight to survive, which is the point of the first boss; to kill anyone who can’t hold onto what they’ve earned.”  Anna 2 says, exhaling with relief as she finishes her answer before leaping away as Anna 1 blasts the spot she was sitting at.  

Lindsey reacts faster, kicking the wand out of Anna 1’s hand as Phoenix lunges and captures Anna 2 as she tries to escape.  Both immediately return to their respective seats, the former with a bruise on her cheek and a very pissed-off look in her eyes.  

“Lindsey, may I see that?”  I ask, and Lindsey acquiesces, passing me the stick.  I stare at it before snapping it in two, pocketing the diamond gemstone core and watching for reactions.

Anna 2 looks gleeful.  Anna 1 looks even more irritated.  As much as I could have predicted, considering their different personalities.  

“If you’re going to snap my wand, then you had better snap hers too.”  Anna 1 points at Anna 2.  Anna 2 snatches her wand from her holster and shoves it down her shirt, glaring fiercely at me.

I blink.

“Do you really think I won’t blow a hole through your chest to get to that wand?”  I ask coldly.  She gives me a devastating grin.

“Not until you know for sure that I’m not the real Anna.”  Anna 2 replies, safe in her knowledge.  

And she’s right, again.  

But it doesn’t matter.  I now know how to find the correct Anna.

And the imposter...the imposter is...

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to attempt the puzzle. 
> 
> Note: As the Anna I'm going to rewrite will be much more like the original Anna from Journey's End, you should probably use that as a template if you choose to.
> 
>  
> 
> For those who reviewed so far: Thank you very much. Your criticism has been taken into consideration (I reply to all of it, so you know) and it's the reason for my break; using your suggestions I will be rewriting a fairly large part of this (after finishing the whole thing, so I don't fail Nanowrimo lol). Thank you for your contribution; my main goal is to become a better writer and I really do appreciate your help.


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